La Concha is the beautiful mountain overlooking Marbella and the coast down to Gibraltar and Morocco.

After living in Marbella for 8 years I have always wondered what the views where like up there.

Being a 51 year old male smoking 20-30 sigarrets pr day the ideas have just been ideas. But when good friends told me last Saturday that a group of them, 15 in all were planning a walk I started thinking. Might not be that difficult after all.

So 10 in the morning on Sunday I drove up past Ojen and turned left up the mountain to El Refugio de Juanar hotel. The crowd was gathered for morning coffee and set to take off.

The hotel is at app. 550 meters above sea level. I did not know that the group I was going with were all professional spinners training twice a week. Of course the first climb from the hotel is app 400 meters straight up. My lungs were exploding and my heart banging in my chest. Why am I here ? Well on top of the first ridge we could see La Concha on the horizon.

I told the group I needed a good rest and I would meet them later. I walked small paths up and down and when you thought you were close there was another ridge. And the path became smaller and smaller and if you look at one of the photos you see the path was more suitable for a mountain goats than humans. I called this part Valley of Death because there was a long way down.

Half an hour after passing this point you come up to La Concha (1270 meters) with amazing views all over the coast and to Istan. It was to cloudy to see Africa today. When nearly up my phone beeped and there was a message from Moroc Telecom saying “Welcome to Morocco” I laughed and though I had taken the wrong turn somewhere.

After enjoying some food and a lot of water and trying to convince my body to back down again we had to start. Would be dark in a few hours. Usually the walk down seams shorter than the walk up. But not this time. But at 5.30 I reached the hotel. Every muscle in my body aching. I was not sure if I had conquered La Concha or if La Concha had conquered me. My friends greeting me with applause and bought me a beer.

The trip to La Concha and back takes 5 to 7 hours depending on your health. It is not suitable for young children or older people. In the future I will stay with them on the passeo in Marbella.